Two If’s and a Walk Stronger Than Death (part I)
August 19, 2007 12:01 pm Chapter 8, Romans, Sermon-TextsThe first segment of two sermons addressing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This sermon is part of the Walking According to the Spirit sermon series and is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:9-13. This sermon was originally preached August 19th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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:: The Resolved Church :: August 19th, 2007 :: Pastor Duane M. Smets
Romans 8:9-13
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Two If’s and a Walk Stronger than Death - (part I)
Romans 8:9-13
I. If Christ was raised
A. Biblical Evidence
B. Circumstantial Evidence
C. Historical Evidence
II. If Christ is in you
A. Sin is Death
B. The Body is Important
C. Christ is Life
Introduction
Good morning. Let’s read the text and pray. Father God, this is a beautiful text, a text full of hope, an honest text, one that challenges the very motions of life and life beyond the grave. In our world today it seems the truth comes to us elusively at times. We hesitate at belief for fear that what we accept as true will later turn out to be false. Secure us today. As we work the muscle of our minds may we as individuals be sharp and be willing to be convinced and to be changed. Show us the glory and wonder of Jesus. May our small perceptions which so easily only see the now and the immediate, may they be enlarged so that we see life here and now in view of eternity. As assuredly as Christ was raised from the dead, raise us up from the dead this morning. Awaken us from slumber, enliven us to hear and see and believe truth, and give us Jesus. May Jesus Christ descend into our hearts today, may we truly believe and walk with him. Jesus Christ is Lord, Amen.
We begin our study this morning by looking into a very small and very significant word, “if.” It occurs several times in this passage and there are two particular times where the way they are used is hugely important. On the word “if” in these two places hang two incredibly important, incredibly life changing, incredibly powerful conclusions. Look at them, “if Christ is in you (you belong to Jesus, walk with him, follow him, are led by his Spirit, if Christ is in you), although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” That is one “if.” It is an experiential if concerning whether or not you are a Christian. That is important.
Then there is the second “if,” “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. This second “if” is an intellectual if, an evidential or historical if, a factual if that hangs on the question of whether or not Jesus Christ really died and really rose.
These two if’s, in one way represent the two different reasons or ways people come to faith in Jesus. And everyone in this room probably leans more to one way than the other. What I mean is, some of you believe because you have experienced something, an emptiness or a guilt, or you have had a need that was met, or someone who loves Jesus has shown love to you, or you went to church and heard a moving sermon. But the reason you believe is because you have had an experience.
Others of you believe what you do because you are smart and have really thought about what is and what can be true and why. You may have studied philosophy, or science, or world religions, or studied Jesus Christ and the Bible and have become convinced. That’s a few of you, probably not many.
I’m going to start today with the second reason or way that a person comes to faith because I think that is where affection or experience truly begins, in the mind in what you think and assume. The other is an experiential if and so it is more of a heart if. This second if is more of a head if and I want to start there and slowly move forward and show how this head if effects the heart if. Because they are connected. There is a connection between the heard and the heart, between physical and spiritual life, between the soul and the body.
I. If Christ was Raised
So let’s begin with our first “if,” “if Christ was raised.” John Dominic Crossan, he is a considered by some to be a scholar, others scholars call him an imposter for his lack of scholarly credibility and method, but you might be familiar with him because the news people and the discovery channel people like to interview him. He is a short little white haired man, who is very nice and he says this about Jesus’ resurrection,
“The resurrection is a fabricated myth used for religious propaganda, only effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children. “…after the crucifixion Jesus’ corpse was probably laid in a shallow grave, barely covered with dirt, and subsequently eaten by wild dogs; the story of Jesus’ entombment and resurrection was the result of ‘wishful thinking.’”
Paul, our human author of Romans, was aware of what was at stake if Jesus did not rise from the dead, and Paul agrees with Mr. Crossan that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, Christians are fools. Here is Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain….(and) we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor 15:14,19).” If Jesus did not rise from the dead Christianity is false, not true, it is a wishful myth and those who believe in it are to be pitied for being such fools. And I don’t want to be a fool.
As much as I love existentialist philosophy and as much as I love Zombie movies…I don’t want to believe something is true just because. I don’t want to be a Zombie Christian who takes some great leap of faith into some experiential abyss of spirituality where I leave behind my brain. I can believe all I want that I am going to inherit a million dollars from Bill Gates some day, but unless I see some evidence to convince me of it, that is a vain hope and useless to try and build my life counting on that money. So we are going to go through some evidence for the resurrection. The question on the table is “if” it actually happened.
We are going to begin with the biblical evidence, then the circumstantial evidence, and then the historical evidence. Today we’re just going to do the biblical evidence and next week we’ll finish up our outline with the circumstantial and historical evidence and look deeper into the words of Romans. If you have some friends who are skeptics and you have been thinking of inviting them to church, next week would be perfect week. I’m inviting a few of my friends and hoping that something from the truth of the word of God will open them up to the gospel.
A. Biblical Evidence
We start with the biblical evidence because the way this discussion about Jesus’ resurrection usually goes when you talk to people about it is that you usually just get an assumption of what the Bible says about it. But very few have actually looked inside to see what the Bible says specifically.
1. Jesus’ Prediction
We’ve got Jesus who’s been around for about thirty years and just laying low, making rocking chairs and tables and houses and knick knacks for old ladies as a carpenter. When he is about thirty years old he starts teaching and preaching and healing people, doing miracles and he does this straight for three years. I’m turning 29 next Sunday, so Jesus would have been just about my same age when he started doing all this stuff. Toward the end of those three years he starts saying on several different occasions that he is going to die and in three days later he will rise from the dead.
Here is one of those occasions. Jesus is in a small village near Caesarea Philippi, which is now the area called Golan Heights on the edge of the border of Israel. He may have been near the Banyas Spring, which is right in that area. He pulls some of his closest followers together and starts asking them some questions about what they think about him. Who people think he is and what he came to do. They start answering and then Jesus says these remarkable words, “(I) must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).”
Astounding words. Prediction that is specific and supernatural and shows Jesus knew who he was and what he planned to do. He wanted to give let his followers know what was going to happen before it did so that they would know he could be trusted, they could trust him. Now, I know you could say, we’ll they wrote this after it all happened so how do you know they didn’t just make it up that Jesus said this. Maybe, perhaps. But listen to the very next words in Mark after this, Mark 8:32 “And he said this plainly.” It is almost as if Mark knew some might think that, so he goes out of his way to emphasis that Jesus really said this.
2. Jesus Died
Next in the story we look at Jesus’ death. This may seem like an obvious point. But many today, especially Muslims, do not believe that Jesus died on the cross. In the Qu’ran in Sura 4:157 it says, ” And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of GOD. In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him - they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him.” And so, the explanation is that Jesus did not die on the cross but merely swooned, he merely passed out for awhile and was resuscitated.
The story of Jesus death…one written by a tax collector, one written by a meal servant/waiter, one written by a primitive medical doctor, and one written by a fisherman. And their story is unanimous. Jesus is taken from a garden where he is seemingly sweating blood, is thrown into a hurried up trial in the night. Is taken out and flogged, which is where a solider takes a whip with pieces of bone tied up in it and hits a persons back until the flesh is all opened up. They put a crown on his made out thorns from a throne and press it onto his head. In the morning they take him up on a hill, lay him down and drive 5-7 inch spikes through is ankles and wrists into a cross made of wood. And then they stand him up so that he hangs from his wrists and if he needs to breath, he has to push up on the spike in his ankles and pull on the spikes in his wrists to get air into his lungs. This can go on for a long time, so sometime the soldiers would break the person’s legs so they couldn’t push up anymore and they wouldn’t have enough strength in their arms and would just suffocate. They don’t end up breaking Jesus legs because it didn’t take long for him to die. He had lost so much blood and strength they could see he was dead and to prove it and make sure a solider takes a spear and jabs it up under his rib cage into his heart. When he does that the gospel writers say they saw blood and water flow out. Jesus was dead.
A modern medical examination looks at these documents written by people who knew nothing about modern medicine and here is what they say. Jesus suffered from hematidrosis, a condition, where under a great deal of stress one sweats blood. Jesus suffered from respiratory acidosis, which is where one suffocates from not getting oxygen into their lungs. Jesus suffered from hypovolemic shock and cardiac arrest, which is where one loses so much blood that their organs shut down, Jesus heart stopped beating. And Jesus experienced pericardial and pleural effusion, pleural is the fluid around the lungs and pericardial is the blood that flows through he hearts, so when the solider stabbed Jesus, it was clear, he was a real human who was dead.
3. The Empty Tomb
Next in the biblical story is the empty tomb. Jesus was buried in a tomb. Not everyone was buried in a tomb. You only got a tomb if you had a lot of money and Jesus didn’t have any. But a rich man, named Joseph of Arimithea, he was probably a prominent member of society had been following Jesus because it says he did so secretly. When Jesus died, he came out from his secrecy and offered his tomb for Jesus to be buried in because it was the tradition for holy men to be buried in a tomb. A tomb was a big hole cut out of rock in the side of a mountain or hill and there would have been a stone that would have taken at least three or four men to move in front of it.
We’ll talk about those who found the tomb empty three days later in a minute. But first note, there is no other historical story found anywhere than that Jesus was buried in a tomb. And if he was buried in tomb then the question is simple. What happened to him? If Jesus did not rise from the dead, where did the body go? When everybody was saying he rose from the dead they could have easily gone to the tomb and proved it and that is probably what the Roman government would have done to squash this new group that was forming, because the Roman government did not like anything that disturbed the peace. The pax Romana, the peace of Rome was their official virtue. But Jesus dead body has never been found.
So many people were becoming Christians when the disciples started preaching about Jesus having risen from the dead, but no one would have believed them if they all knew Jesus’ body was still in the tomb. But it was just the opposite. Everyone was talking about how the tomb was empty. The only explanation anyone every came up with was that the disciples stole the body. Which is funny if they did, because they were scared for their lives.
After Jesus died his followers were afraid. When Jesus first appeared to them as a group the Bible says they were hiding behind locked doors afraid that the Romans were coming to get them and crucify them next for being part of the Jesus rebellion. Tampering with a dead body was punishable by death, these men would not have had the courage and if they did, why would they all end up giving over their lives to death for a lie. All the disciples were killed (except John) for staked their preaching and their death on the claim that Jesus rose from the dead, why would they do so if they all knew that they really stole the body? Everyone knew the soldiers just said that so they wouldn’t get fired or worse. Jesus’ dead body has never been found since his crucifixion, only an alive, living, breathing, talking and walking Jesus, who rose up from death and is alive today.
4. The Eyewitnesses
After the tomb was found empty and Jesus began appearing to people. In the first century, an eyewitness was the strongest evidence a lawyer could bring forth in court. It is still strong today, not as strong as videotape. But they didn’t have video camera back then. There weren’t these guys you could hire to go film your spouse and see if he or she is cheating on you. They didn’t make home videos and happen to catch things on tape to send in for Americas Funniest Videos or wildest car chases. But eyewitnesses were a big deal, the strongest evidence around.
In the Bible there are 15 specific names of people who are recorded as having seeing the risen Jesus, there are 19 independent personal accounts or stories of what happened, and there are several verifications where Jesus appeared to huge crowds of people. One specific time is famous where there were 500 people all in one place who all saw and heard Jesus. Can you imagine 500 witnesses testifying in a court today. And the Bible records these people’s names and was written when they were still alive and openly admits, if you don’t believe us go ask them, they’ll tell you the same thing. This is not conspiracy theory, this is widespread confirmation. This is not one person’s spiritual meanderings, like Siddhartha’s, this is hundreds of people’s authentifications. This is not a few individuals hallucinating because they loved and longed to see their dear friend who had just died, this is tons of people seeing the exact same thing.
a. Women
Listen to a few the personal accounts. The first people all four gospel accounts record having discovered Jesus resurrection are women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and some others. They go to the tomb to leave some memorials and spices and they discover the tomb empty and an angel appears to them and tells them Jesus has risen.
Okay, so set aside your potential disbelief in angels. But note this, it is an important one, Jesus and the apostles and the writers of Scripture and Christians throughout the century are the ones who have given women a high place of honor. We value and love our women. We may think there are different roles intended for men and women but women are very very important. This was not the case in the first century. Women were looked down upon and were not even allowed to give a testimony in court. Their testimony was considered unreliable. So if all four of the disciples are making up this story about Jesus’ resurrection, then the last thing you do is have women being your first eyewitnesses, it doesn’t even count.
Some of you today might have heard everything I have said so far and you are like, “yeah, so what, that is just what the Bible says and just because the Bible says it happened doesn’t mean it really did, the Bible says a lot of crazy stuff.” Listen, that the Bible records women first discovering the resurrection of Jesus is blaring proof that what the Bible records did in fact actually happen.
b. Thomas
One of my favorite accounts is the one from Thomas the disciple. He wasn’t there the first time when Jesus appeared to a bunch of the disciples and so when they got all excited and went and told Thomas Jesus had risen. He told them they were crazy, to get some sleep, and to stop drinking so much…and they are like no, we weren’t drunk, Jesus really rose. Then Thomas gets super intense and says unless I see his scars from the nails and the spear I won’t believe it. I love Thomas, because he is there for all of us skeptics. So Jesus appears to Thomas and offers his body for inspection. So Thomas checks out his hands and touches Jesus’ side, looks into his face, hears that familiar voice, and Thomas breaks down, tears well up in his eyes and he falls down and starts to worship and says, “My Lord and my God!” I think for Thomas, Jesus had just been a good teacher, an interesting dude, but at that moment his heart changed and he realized Jesus was in fact the messiah. He wasn’t just seeing a ghost. This was real, flesh and bones Jesus. After this they ate a meal together having some fish and talking. Jesus was alive and had rose up from the dead.
c. Paul
The last account I want to share is Paul’s himself, the author of Romans. Before he wrote Romans he had a very high and esteemed job. He was a protector of the purity of the Jewish religion. A new movement spawned rapidly and quickly when Jesus rose from the dead and started showing himself to all these people. So Paul was on the inside track from the Jewish authorities to try and stomp out this new heresy called Christianity. Paul oversaw the first Christian to die for saying Jesus rose from the dead, his name was Stephen. Paul was a high class murderer. He is on a trip to Damascus to go try and have some more Christians stoned to death and while he is traveling there, Jesus shows up in the middle of the road, stops Paul and asks him why he is doing all this. Paul stares at Jesus in disbelief and asks who are you? And Jesus answers, “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.” And Paul becomes a changed man going on to write 1/3rd of the books of the Bible about Jesus.
There are other eyewitness accounts, I’d thought I’d just share a few of the ones with you today that come from unlikely sources. This is the point. This is what we are faced with. Maybe you’re sitting there and you are like fine, this thing happened in history like 2,000 years ago and a bunch of people testified that it actually happened, so what if it did?
5. The Christian Creed
What difference does it make? Here is the difference. Very shortly after Jesus rose from the dead, his followers started grouping together and the gospel began to click. Almost as though a light went on and everything Jesus had been saying and teaching and doing for the past three years made sense. So very shortly, perhaps a few weeks, maybe a few months, they formed a creed. A statement of faith about who they were and what they believed.
Paul shares it with us in 1 Corinthians 15, “(I remind you) of the gospel which you received, in which you stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast…(here is the creed, the gospel that saves) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Jesus died, Jesus was buried, and Jesus rose from the dead. That is the gospel. Jesus died, Jesus was buried, and Jesus rose from the dead.
And that changes everything. No longer were any of Jesus words just good things to know, they are the words of life. No longer is God seemingly a distant source, Jesus truly is God himself, here among us. No longer is death the undefeatable foe, but death has been conquered. Life and new life now reigns through Jesus. Now in the midst of darkness and despair stands Jesus, the light of his resurrection pours in and gives hope and brings peace. Jesus the son of God live and stands to save.
Jesus’ resurrection is the source and the symbol. And all creation rings of its praise. Plants and grass that whither and turn brown from being scorched come back to life and turn bright green and champion the resurrection of Christ. The sun itself which sets and darkness covers the earth, rises in the morning and reminds us that everything in creation is about Jesus and his resurrection and the promise of true and eternal life. Life now becomes not about death but about how Jesus heals and saves and brings new life, he changes things. Creation calls out Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.
Listen to our verse from Romans again, ” If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Jesus gives and guarantees new life to those who follow him and are indwelt by his Spirit.
Conclusion
Next week we’ll look at the circumstantial and historical evidence from outside the Bible and we’ll deal with the second “if”…so bring your friends. To conclude today’s sermon I want to share one last resurrection appearance because it gives us a picture of Jesus that really helps us know who it is that we are worshipping. When we gather each Sunday to sing and to study and to take communion, we gather to worship the resurrected Jesus. We love him, adore him, marvel at him, are amazed at him, enjoy him, and devote our lives to him. Here is Jesus when he appears to the apostle John, while on the Island Patmos.
“…I heard a loud voice like a trumpet…then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw…(Jesus) clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace and his voice was like the roar of many waters…(he had a) two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
This is Jesus who we worship and him who we share our worship with the world as the only one true hope. This is the resurrected Christ is strong and able to save. This world is temporary. The last few weeks have been devastating weeks for many. A bridge in Minnesota collapsing and killing 7 people, a earthquake in Peru killing over 500, miners and rescue workers now dead inside a mountain in Utah, and even as we speak hurricane dean now plows through Jamaica. In the middle of such a world Jesus stands to save with a secure salvation that is stronger than death.
So turn to Jesus today. Walk with him. Walk close to Jesus. Receive his Spirit inside you. Trust him and be changed by him. Dying and rising, dying and rising, dying and rising. This is our life. The gospel at work in us through the resurrection of Christ our Lord.
Let’s pray.